Fine Dining and Yoga, Together?

Fine Dining and Yoga, Together?“We’re doing a story about one of the hottest restaurants in Wine Country right now,” my producer Mary Orlin, told me at a recent meeting. My mouth watered as she described the new “it” restaurant of Napa. It is vegetarian, but evidently, not the barley and tofu type of vegetarian that strikes fear in the hearts of carnivores. This restaurant is making a name for itself serving cutting edge cuisine that just happened to be meat free. “Oh, and one more thing,” Mary added, “Bring yoga clothes and a cute cover-up.”  
What? Bring yoga clothes to a restaurant? What about dining there? What about trying the haute cuisine? And, what exactly does a “cute cover-up” look like?
Ubuntu, the hottest restaurant in Napa right now, is also the hottest yoga studio in town and that for me would mean doing downward facing dogs before digging in.
After much stressful shopping for the perfect yoga cover-up, the “In Wine Country” crew arrived at Ubuntu to discover what made this odd combination of restaurant and yoga studio work.
Ubuntu is the brainchild of owner Sandy Lawrence, a yoga enthusiast and businesswoman. She moved to Napa, after years of producing financial conferences around the world. Sandy enjoyed hosting yoga retreats for friends and other yogis at her Napa Valley home but found it difficult to find good vegetarian food to feed her friends. One thing led to another, and soon Sandy was coming out of retirement to convert a warehouse-like space in Napa into a yoga studio/restaurant.  
I asked Sandy if people thought she was crazy to try to combine fine dining with yoga. “Definitely,” she said; but clearly, Sandy is enjoying the last laugh because Ubuntu is gaining a nationwide reputation, both as a serious yoga studio and a seriously good restaurant.
When we visited with “In Wine Country,” Sandy invited me to join her in a “Forest Yoga” class taught by Sharon Dawson. Forest Yoga is method developed by Ana Forest and it emphasizes breath and core strength in a sequence of postures. I’ve done a little yoga, but I’m no expert, and though the class was dubbed “moderate,” for my not-so-flexible body it was challenging. We stretched and posed our way through an hour of yoga positions, including a headstand move against the wall, which I’m afraid revealed my utter lack of core strength.
Sandy’s mat was right next to mine and her yoga experience was obvious as she glided through the various poses from warrior, to cobra, to pigeon, with ease. Sharon kindly offered modified poses for those of us trembling while trying to get into a decent triangle posture, and throughout she reminded us how to use our breath to deepen both the stretch and the relaxation.   
After the final “Namaste,” Sandy and I went downstairs for lunch, which, I’ll admit I was dreaming about while allegedly emptying my mind during Savasna (the relaxation period at the end of the class). It is a wonderfully unique experience to walk out of yoga class and into a world-class restaurant, but that’s just what you do at Ubuntu. Nobody bats an eye at the tank tops and yoga mats parading through the restaurant, and in fact, the meditative and spiritual side of yoga is right in line with Sandy’s philosophy for her restaurant.
Ubuntu is a Zulu expression meaning humanity toward others. Sandy lived in Africa for several years and told me Ubuntu is more than a word, it is a philosophy of kindness and being open to others.    
At Ubuntu Restaurant in Napa, Sandy has worked hard to create a dining experience that exudes ubuntu, from the friendly staff, to the open dining room where you have a view of the kitchen and the upstairs yoga studio, to the menu which features Biodynamic® wines and produce grown in Sandy’s own garden.  
Ubuntu Restaurant has garnered glowing national attention from the likes of the New York Times, Food and Wine Magazine and Bon Appetit. Chef Jeremy Fox, who most recently was chef de cuisine at the celebrated Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos, CA, has created a menu that delights the senses and never leaves you wanting meat. Surprisingly, Jeremy is not a vegetarian and that may work in his favor when it comes to creating rich, full flavored dishes.  
For lunch, we started with an incredibly fresh and flavorful beet salad with grapefruit and avocado, followed by the restaurant’s signature cauliflower in a cast iron pot. The dish, which included both roasted and pureed cauliflower was rich and creamy and not the least bit spartan. Sharon, our yoga instructor, told me the deep-fried egg was not to be missed and she was right. I watched the eggs come in that morning in a small wicker basket from a local farm and what Jeremy did with them was out of this world!   
Jeremy’s wife, Deanie Fox, is Ubuntu’s pastry chef and is equally creative with her desserts. We finished our lunch with a cheesecake in a small Mason Jar that was decadently delicious. Obviously, cream, eggs and cheeses are not off-limits at Ubuntu, but the menu also lists several dishes that are either entirely vegan, or that can be prepared vegan.  
I left feeling both satisfied and rejuvenated by my yoga lunch and eager to invite some girlfriends to Napa to experience Ubuntu with me, perhaps as a mom’s day out. It would seem to me, there’s even more joy in a sun salutation when you follow it with a good meal.
Watch for my fledgling attempt at warrior and other poses in an upcoming “In Wine Country” episode on Ubuntu later this year. “In Wine Country” airs Sundays at 6:30 p.m. on NBC 11.